So called "sticks" or "spacing sticks" are used in a sawmill to hold apart successive tiers of lumber in a stack of lumber so that the stack can be dried. Lath on the other hand are much thinner than sticks and are used to bind lumber stacks together by insertion laterally across tiers of longitudinally aligned lumber, between successive tiers.
Previously most spacing stick and lath placing machines (placers) were separate machines and usually designed differently, for one purpose or the other (spacing sticks or lath). One example of a stick placer used for spacing lumber for drying purposes is U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,621 issued to Newnes. The device utilizes a plurality of single magazines with a placing device below each magazine. The device is well suited for the purpose it was intended, that of delivering spacing sticks of a certain width and thickness, but does not work effectively with thin lath used for finished lumber packages (to be transported or shipped) and could not easily be combined to accomplish both tasks.
An example of a lath placer is U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,341, issued to Dion, which utilizes a rotary vacuum actuator that picks the lath up off of a short curved stack and then rotates back and drops the lath a short distance onto the package. This device is useful for delivering thin packaging lath, but cannot effectively deliver spacing sticks used for spacing lumber for drying and could not be used in a combined system for delivering both lath and spacing sticks.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,886, issued to Leon, can only place either spacing sticks, or, possibly, lath at any one time, due to the width of each unit and, because of the constraint of the restricted area above the lumber stack, could not be combined to successfully place both spacing sticks or lath through the same apparatus.
Applicant is also aware of U.S. Pat. No. 3,169,646, which issued to Mason. The Mason device is designed for spacing sticks and, again, could only capably handle either spacing sticks, or possibly lath, at any one time. No means are provided for positive placement of spacing sticks or lath. As the surface of a lumber stack is rarely completely level, given that each piece of lumber is usually not exactly the same shape as the adjacent piece, spacing sticks are dropped from the Mason device, thereby increasing the likelihood of the stick being bounced and misplaced. It is also not provided that spacing sticks be placed positively at the ends of the lumber stacks, where sawmills require a flush end face of the stack to reduce checking as the lumber stack is dried.